It was another climbing day at the Tour de Suisse, with Splügenpass serving as the decisive climb, followed by a long descent and a finish in Italy.
Tour de Suisse stage 4 2025 profile
The breakaway featuring Andrew August, Thomas Gloag, Quinn Simmons, and Neilson Powless stood no chance against a surging peloton, paced by UAE Team Emirates, with Jan Christen doing a strong pull for João Almeida. The Portuguese rider, who has already won the general classification at both the Basque Country and Romandie this year, narrowly missed out on overall victory last year in Suisse, losing to his teammate Adam Yates. Unfortunately for Almeida, he lost over 3 minutes on a rainy opening stage in this edition.
Eduardo Sepúlveda spent 2,687 kilojoules over 2 hours and 54 minutes at a rate of 15.23 kj/kg/h before the climb, showing how hard the racing was.
Almeida attacked on Splügenpass, with Felix Gall and Oscar Onley being the last to lose his wheel. Coming off an impressive training block at Sierra Nevada, Almeida was clearly above the rest, producing 6.42 ᵉW/kg for 23:10 at high altitude, equivalent to 6.89 ᵉW/kg adjusted for sea level. Onley, Gall, Vauquelin, O’Connor, and others crested the climb 50 seconds later, having averaged 6.05 ᵉW/kg.
Almeida maintained his lead on the descent, winning the stage by 40 seconds ahead of Onley and O’Connor, with a larger group arriving about a minute behind. Due to the chaos of the first stage, Romain Grégoire, Kévin Vauquelin, and Julian Alaphilippe, the three Frenchmen, currently lead the GC. However, that may not last, as several climbing stages remain, including a brutal mountain time trial on Stage 8. Despite being 2:07 down, Almeida still has a good shot at taking the overall win.
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